The Cool Factor: Building your brands image through partnership marketing

UPDATE November 4, 2008: The winners have been announced. Congratulations to Bryan Bliss who won the guitar and ten others who won books.
+++++++++++

"What is cool?" Del Breckenfeld asks in his new book The Cool Factor: Building Your Brands Image through Partnership Marketing. "It's difficult to identify, impossible to measure, and usually appears spontaneously."

I'm going to talk a little about Del's new book and a little about cool.

But please note that there is an insanely cool challenge with a one-of-a-kind offer (you can win a Fender Telecaster guitar used in a concert and signed by Billy F. Gibbons of ZZ Top) as part of this blog post, so read on!

As head of Entertainment Marketing at Fender Musical Instruments, Del Breckenfeld worked with the world's top musicians, helped organize amazing events, and secured product placement in hit movies. In his book, he shows how Fender became the coolest name in musical instruments and how marketers at Fender partnered with cool products, people, and events to up their cool factor even more.

Because very few of us work at way cool companies like Fender, Breckenfeld shows us in the book how you can partner with cool and have some of the coolness rub off.

That's what I’ve done! How? I was fortunate to read an advance copy of The Cool Factor and offer an endorsement for the back of the book. My own cool factor went up when I saw the other blurbs from the likes of Billy F. Gibbons from ZZ Top and Don Felder formerly of The Eagles.

Me, together with a couple of Rock and Roll Hall of Famers? No way! How cool.

"Del Breckenfeld's The Cool Factor gets the inside story on the music business partnering with major corporations fueling their brands."
—Billy F. Gibbons, guitarist, singer, and songwriter with the multiplatinum band ZZ Top, and all-around "Sharp Dressed Man"

"In The Cool Factor, Del Breckenfeld shows us firsthand how to get celebrities to partner with corporations for the purpose of positive outreach..."
—Don Felder, former lead guitarist and songwriter of The Eagles, bestselling author of Heaven and Hell: My Life in the Eagles (1974 – 2001)

"Del Breckenfeld knows cool. Fender, the brand he oversees, has such a high cool factor that even millions of non-musicians aspire to use its products..."
—David Meerman Scott, author of The New Rules of Marketing and PR and World Wide Rave

OK, so here's the challenge. As part of a cool partnership with Del Breckenfeld, we're offering a Fender guitar signed by Billy F. Gibbons. This amazing Fender® Classic 72 Telecaster® Deluxe guitar was used in a concert this past weekend (you can learn more about it and see some photos below). The guitar will go to the person who supplies the best response to my challenge below. In addition, a copy of The Cool Factor will be sent to the winner plus five honorable mentions.

Breckenfeld says. "If you ask someone what cool is, they'll probably reply that they can't tell you in exact words, but they know it when they see it."

I told Breckenfeld that my blog readers are a cool bunch. And I said that they would have some great ideas on what "cool" is.

So your challenge is: Define "cool" in two sentences or less.

To get you thinking, according to Wikipedia, "Cool is an aesthetic of attitude, behavior, comportment, appearance, style and Zeitgeist."

Details:
1. Your answer must be original, not a movie line or something like that.

2. The challenge ends at 5:00 PM U.S. Eastern time on Friday October 31, 2008.

3. Please submit your answer by either writing a blog post and sending a trackback to this post (or) leaving a comment to this post (or) blog or podcast your answer and leave a link to your blog or podcast in a comment on this post.

4. Only one entry per person please. (However feel free to leave a general comment on this post if you want and then an entry later.)

5. Please use your real name. If you enter via a blog post, make sure you have contact information on your blog so we can notify you if you win. If you enter via a comment, please enter a valid email address in the comment form so we can contact you (your email address will not be published).

6. Shannon Vargo from John Wiley & Sons Inc. (publisher of The Cool Factor) will select the winner and runners up.

7 Thank you!

Billy F. Gibbons and the guitar with his artwork and autograph

"I contacted Billy F. Gibbons to ask if he could sign a Fender® guitar as part of a promotion for my new book, The Cool Factor, on David Meerman Scott's popular blog," says Del Breckenfeld. "I had worked with Billy beginning with ZZ Top's infamous 'Legs' video (the company I worked for at the time created the spinning fur guitars) right up to Billy's appearance on this year's American Idol. My association with Billy is well documented in my book, and both Billy and David were kind enough to offer endorsements for my book's jacket.

"It just so happened that ZZ Top was playing the 25th Anniversary of Southern California’s 'Love Ride'. The event typically attracts over 20,000 motorcycles and to date, the ride has generated over $20 million which is donated to try and help solve Muscular Dystrophy and to fund local charities. This year proved to be the biggest and best one yet! I brought along a shiny black Classic 72 Telecaster® Deluxe for Billy to sign and when my wife Bettina and I met him on his tour bus, we were joined by Duff McKagan, bassist with Velvet Revolver and formally with Guns & Roses. Duff was planning on sitting in with ZZ Top along with Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters, who just finished their blazing set. The problem was that Duff didn’t have a guitar with him. He took one look at the Classic Tele and thought it would do just fine for the performance. The next thing we knew, we were watching Duff on-stage with Grohl and ZZ Top ripping through 'La Grange' and 'Tush' in front of a delirious crowd estimated at 40,000 fans. As soon as the show ended, we were back on Billy's bus, where he carefully wiped off the guitar and proceeded to create his own brand of hot rod 'pin-stripping' on the face, then signing and dating the artwork. The guitar, resplendent with Billy's art and a few well placed 'dings' from the rockin' show as war wounds, is now part of rock history."

ZZ Top with Duff McKagan using the guitar in a concert in front of 40,000 people

Come on, you know you want this guitar. It is so damn cool. You're a smart marketer, aren't you? How would you define "cool" in two sentences or less?

Duff McKagan (with the guitar) and Del Breckenfeld in Billy F. Gibbons' tour bus prior to the gig

Disclosure: The Cool Factor is published by John Wiley & Sons, the publisher of my books including The New Rules of Marketing & PR (2007) and World Wide Rave (coming March 2009).

Comments

[Jon Swanson]

Cool is not caring what people think creatively enough that people care what you think.

[Jon Bishop]

Cool is being completely candid and transparent as individuals and companies while approaching life and business from a different angle than the mainstream thought process.

[Sebastien Page]

Cool is what never goes out of style

[Steve Johnson]

"Cool" is doing what you think is right and not caring what others think.

[Scott DeYager]

Cool is knowing when to care and when not to care.

[jon burg]

Cool is the art of being rather than the act of emoting. However, those that we perceive as cool attain their status due to their ability to transmit a state of absolute being into a statement of absolute presence.

[Josh Sternberg]

"Cool" will always be The Beatles and The Stones, Jimi and E.C., Kerouac and Ginsberg, Hitchcock and Kubrick. And most importantly, "cool" will always be my soon-to-be wife and my parents.

[Allyson Robison]

Cool is making the most of every day regardless of what anyone else thinks. That sort of self-confidence entices others to follow, usually without realizing it, thus making you "cool."

[Kevin Mason]

Cool defies explanation. When something is cool, you just feel it deep down in your soul!

[David Fisher]

Cool is being yourself so much that everyone else wants to be you.

[Allen L. Kelly]

Cool is the essence of what everyone wants to be, but no one ever is. Once you realize this, you are it.

[Joel Johnson]

Cool is the nudge that gets us to look up from where we are and to imagine ourselves a little closer to who we dream we could be.

Neat idea, Del and David. I think we all want to associate ourselves with coolness. There's an ideal in it that we want to be a part of, even if that which is cool is different to the next guy.

[Karen Brindley]

You have the cool factor when guitar heroes endorse you. How cool is that!

[Thuan Nguyen]

Cool is walking in a room and all the girls wanna sleep with you and all the guys wish they were you.

[Skip Reardon]

Cool is a matter of attitude, style and influence. Cool changes in the way it is perceived, but let's face it, cool never "really" changes.

[NWGuy]

Cool is when people understand that you are operating on a completely different level, but think that you are a perfect fit with them.

[DrRJE]

"Cool" is the final piece of the puzzle; the one that is overlooked and skipped over until everything else falls into place.

[Scott Young]

Cool is my most extravagant, fantastic, and unrestrained imaginations. Show me something that when I see it I go for a ride in my head, something that breathes life into my dreams and adds dreams to my life - that's cool.

[Chris Plamann]

Cool is the shirt you want to wear, the place you want to go, the car you want to drive, the guitar you want to play, the brand you want to live. Cool is aspirational - attainable for few, pursued by many, and holds value in its inherent scarcity.

[Benjamin Krueger]

In a retreat from the mainstream, it embraces an idea. Independent and inspired, Cool sacrifices itself for all to partake.

[Martin Eliasson]

My definition of cool:

"mainstream rebellion"

Example matrix:

non-mainstream & non-rebellion: think of someone near you, a neighbour or someone who never did anything remarkable in his whole life (not cool).

mainstream & non-rebellion: Dick Cheney (not cool)

non-mainstream & rebellion: Bin Ladin (not cool)

mainstream & rebellion: Yves Saint Laurent (one of the coolest men ever).

Not only persons can be cool. Harley Davidson is cool because it really is mainstream yet there is the motorcycle rebel connection. Fender is cool because guitars have been primary tools of rebel music. Keyboards in general have never been used in any uprising of any sort, so Korg cannot be cool. Clavia might be cool. Only synthesizers used by groups like the Prodigy have a chance of being really cool. Like the 303.

[Josh Peters]

I think everyone's definition of cool is different based on our personalities. For instance I like pirates, alternative art, mma, and horror movies. I think that stuff is cool and the people who excel in these areas are cool. I want to write a horror movie script, be a great artist, play a totally sweet pirate in a movie, etc and for those reasons the people I see doing the stuff I want to do I think are cool. So my 1 sentence definition of cool would have to be:

Cool is the passion, the envy, or the desire we have of someone's acheivements that we want for ourselves.

[Gavin Heaton]

Cool cuts a swathe through the mundane yet is unaware of its impact on the world around it.

[ilya]

Cool was seeing ZZ Top recently!

[lfamous]

What is cool? You know it when you see it; and if you have to ask, it's not. You can't fake cool-either it is, or it isn't. And cool doesn't care what other people think; cool is cool in and of itself not because people say it is. Which is why some things that almost no one knows about (think great garage band) are cooler than things MM says are cool.